What Matters Most

Published by Deborah Negron M.A., B.S.

August, 2018

Lights flashing…
Colors changing…
Setting up that lime light?
For whom are you singing?
For whom are you playing?

Is it Hollywood?
Is it the grand stage?
Is it a time to simply promote ourselves?
The smike…
The lights…
The visual effects…
It’s all psychological enhancement to promote a response in the audience.
Crowd, excitement, ehat’s the objective?

Am I in church?
Am I in a club?
Do I need external stimulation?
Is the Holy Spirit so limited?
Is God’s power so diminished that we need external prompts to cause some feelings to be evoked?

Charles Spurgeon was heard preaching, with no microphone, lights or external fan fare. He could preach for hours at a time. People would stand and listen. That is power.

Billy Graham would preach a simple gospel message and thousands would come to Christ.

I have gone to numerous plays. I love the arts. I actually went to The school of Music and Arts in NY. It was a prestigious High School back in the day. I learned various technical things one can do with the voice. How to use it to be a better performer. I learned how lights and sounds can effect the brain and bring a crowd in or out. That is, how to move people and emotions through music. Music is a powerful tool.
Well, We can all be handled.

We are moved when we watch films or plays. We are motivated or provoked by a speech. We can be convinced by an eloquent speaker. Yes we can all be handled.

I have also been a part of God’s move when no music is played, simple fervent prayer is expressed and God’s Spirit comes and touches lives and transforms people even inside of a prison facility. I have heard my daddy preach to prisoners and we have sung a simple worship song to then see God save souls. I have seen how a man who was once angry and violent and abusive turn in to a gentle soul when the Spirit of God moves in his life.

James 5:15-16 Tells us,
Prayer that comes from faith will heal the sick, for the Lord will restore them to health. And if they have sinned, they will be forgiven. For this reason, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous person is powerful in what it can achieve.

Technology is such a wonderful thing in some instances. It affords us with visual effects in movies and plays. It offers up a host of mediums to the artist. Its great in science and medicine. It has helped countless lives as machines have enabled surgeons to perform operations to save lives. It has expanded our ability to communicate and reach people. For this we can thank God. For He is the one who has enabled mankind to discover and create such advancements.

Now, for the sake of reaching souls, technology has served as radio messages and tv messages have been able to reach thousands with the Gospel message.

But in the church, in our time of worship, give me a crowd of people who join in worship without all the fluff.
Let’s not handle the folks.
Let’s allow Gods Spirit to move..
He does not need our help. He can use a child to minister to people. He can use the guitar of a servant commited to Christ and bring about a change of the heart.

I would rather the simple message and the simple guitar on a corner street, than all the cameras and flashing lights and external manipulations.

I want the Lord to be the Author and Finisher …
I want and genuine move of God, where people surrender their lives because the Word penetrated their hearts as the Holy Spirit draws them.
I want an old fashioned church choir, where just a harmony of voices calls to the depths of the soul and people simply come to know Christ as Lord and Savior.

Keep your gimmicks,
Keep your Hollywood lights.
Keep your external entertainments.
Give me Jesus.

Let me know His power. Let me know, He is able to see us through when we leave the place of external stimulation and enter in to the quietness of our bed rooms.
Let us know him in the midst of our calamity, when in a hospital bed, when illness strkes… when our vision fails, when our ability to perceive external helps is gone.

Let me know Christ when the marriage fails, when the nest is empty, when the illness comes, or when I have lost a loved one.

Let me know him in the midst of adversity where there is only darkness and all I need is His still small voice.

In John 8:31-32 it states,
Jesus said to the Jews who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teaching. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

John 3:16 says,
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him will not be lost but have eternal life.

Jeremías the prophet tells us that God has loved us with an everlasting love. Jeremiah 31:3
Acts 3:19 AMP. says,
So repent [change your inner self–your old way of thinking, regret past sins] and return [to God–seek His purpose for your life], so that your sins may be wiped away [blotted out, completely erased], so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord [restoring you like a cool wind on a hot day];

Take All the External Things…
We Just Need Jesus.

Let me bask in His Presence… Only He satisfies my soul. Only He fills every void. Only Christ restores the soul.